help with sola scriptura understanding

[Sayre]

Hi,

Just a question on sola scriptura. Does answered prayer (personal revelation) have any authority under sola scriptura? I am talking about prayer topics that could not be covered in the bible, e.g. whether or not you should leave your job. How can the bible have authority over that area?

I'm confused about it all.

Thanks

 

[hedrick]

Sola Scriptura may not be an answer to your question. That principle says that Scripture is the final authority by which all doctrine and practice must be checked, and can always be appealed to when you suspect that the Church has gotten off track. It does not say that Scripture is the only source of knowledge. We also pay attention to the experience of Christians over the ages, and to Christian traditions, as well as general sources of knowledge such as science and scholarship. It’s just that we don’t think that these things are perfect, and expect that tradition will at times need to be corrected from Scripture.

I would go a bit further than this and say that Scripture is the only record of God’s public revelation. By public revelation I mean things about God that we couldn’t discover on our own, but which he has shown us, either be direct teaching (e.g. the prophets and Jesus) or through history (e.g. his work with Israel).

However you’re concerned about what I’d call private revelation, not something general about God, but something about your own life. I don’t think Sola Scriptura denies that the Holy Spirit can reveal God’s will directly. However the Reformed tradition tends to be very cautious about that, simply because if you look at Christian history you’ll see so many people who have believed God was speaking to them directly but who were pretty clearly wrong. While the Holy Spirit may guide you to understanding, we would urge people to verify personal messages with Scripture and with other people who know you.

You can get a sense of that when you look at our ordination service for Church officers. It says to the new officers “God has called you through the voice of the Church.” While we expect officers to feel a sense of vocation personally, the official call to be an officer comes through the Church, where people who know the candidates evaluation their lives and talents.

I would be particularly concerned with practices that I would consider superstitious, the Christian equivalent of reading tea leaves. To avoid unnecessary controversy I'm not going to give examples, but I suspect you know what i mean.

 

[Sayre]

Thank you yet again. That is a huge relief to read. I don't think I appreciated what sola scriptura was being applied to.

Your patience is appreciated